Recap: Monday, 26th October 2009. About a week before Halloween. (Let's all pretend 'Code of Conduct' happened AFTER 'Childsplay'..)

~ Trick or Treating ? ~

"Ziv," Gibbs gently stroked her cheek, trying to wake the sleeping child. He had already unstrapped her from the harness and had gotten everything out of the car, what they would need for their shopping trip.

The little girl yawned loudly and stretched her arms over her head, before letting them drop unceremoniously to her sides. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked sleepily around the empty car, her eyes finally landing on Gibbs, who watched her, smiling.

"D'are?"

"Yes, we're there."

"O'tay..." With another yawn escaping her, she shut her eyes again and snuggled back into the booster seat. Not the slightest bit interested in getting out of the car.

"Come on, sleepy. We need to find you a costume." With one hand behind her back and the other under her knees he gently lifted Mini-Ziva out of the car.

"Sleepy," mumbled the little girl in protest.

Gibbs settled his shrunken agent against his chest. Her head coming to rest on his shoulder as her arm loosely hung down beside her, while her other hand rested on the agent's chest.

"I know, Ziv. I'm tired, too. It was a long day for both of us, but if we don't go now we won't find a good costume for you."

"I nee's no 'ustome." She sleepily shook her head.

"All of your friends will wear one. Are you sure that you don't need one?" Gibbs tried to coax her into cooperation. Tony had already taken care of explaining the next weekend's event to her. Now they only needed to find her the right Halloween costume. After all it should be a special day for her, since she never had the opportunity to participate in Trick or Treating before.

Ziva lifted her head slightly to regard him, "Max?"

"Yep."

"Dan'yel?"

"Yep."

"'ana'?"

"Yep," he repeated a third time, inwardly noting that his little agent had asked about the boys first, before even thinking of Hanah.

Mini-Ziva frowned and had opened her mouth in attempt to ask yet another question when Gibbs quickly beat her to it. "Everyone will wear one."

The little girl bit her bottom lip, "You?" She looked at him curiously.

The agent chuckled, "Nah. I'm too old to wear a costume."

"Abby wear 'ustome!" A frown once again adorning Ziva's face.

Gibbs smirked, "She's younger than me. Besides Abby loves Halloween."

"You no luv?"

"Not as much as Abby does," he kissed Mini-Ziva's head, "Can we go now?"

Ziva looked over to the big building, slowly nodding her head.

"You want to walk yourself?"

"Lo, they too big!..." She wrapped her arms around his neck.

Gibbs frowned momentarily, "You mean that there are too many people in there? Making you feel small?"

The little girl nodded against his chest, "No like it."

"Alright, I'll carry you then."

"Toda." She sleepily thanked him, using the chance to sleep a bit more while the agent got them to the right store.

(Costume Store)

"Ziv, wake up," Gibbs grinned as tired brown eyes blinked at him, "We're at the shop. There aren't many people in there. Do you think you can walk by yourself now?"

The little girl looked through the shop window, seeing indeed not many people, "O'tay..."

The agent carefully set her down, holding her hand in order not to lose her as they walked into the store.

Ziva crinkled her nose as her eyes came to rest on a pink princess dress. "No wear 'dat." She shook her head vehemently as Gibbs laughed.

"Not going to make you."

"Lots 'ostumes," observed Mini-Ziva, her brows wrinkled in thought.

"Yeah. Let's take a look, shall we?" Gibbs grinned at her, while the little girl nodded in affirmation.

Bypassing the princess section and any other pink pieces of clothing, Gibbs stopped at a stand with a wide variety of costumes on it. After telling Ziva not to run off on her own, he let go of the little girl's hand.

"Cat?" He held a stripped costume up.

"No."

"Dog?"

"No pets." Ziva deadpanned at once and glared pointedly at Gibbs.

The agent smirked, his hand leaving the raccoon costume before having shown it to her, "How about a pirate?" He pointed to another rack.

"They stink!" Now the little girl had crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Gibbs laughed aloud, "Why do you think that they stink?"

"They no bath," Mini-Ziva shook her head. "They smelly!"

"Ah, you're right." He slapped himself upside the head, causing his companion to giggle.

"How about a zombie then?"

Ziva frowned at the display, "They ugly!"

Gibbs sighed, "Yeah, that was what I was thinking." "At least you don't find them scary..." he thought dryly.

"Mummy? Mermaid? Witch? Clown?" He held one costume after the other up for her to see.

The glare returned to his shrunken agent's face.

"Damn," he groaned inwardly, "That would be straight Nos."

"Do you want to take a look yourself?" Gibbs offered, finally having enough of picking out the wrong costumes.

"No, I want sleep!" Tiredly, Ziva rubbed her eyes.

The team leader momentarily decided to ignore her fussing, "How about a fairy?"

"Dunno." She shrugged her shoulders and held her arms up, wanting to be picked up once again.

"Okay," he gently settled Mini-Ziva on his hip, "We'll keep that in mind. Let's look at some others."

(1 1/2 hours later)

"'ibbs!" Ziva, once more walking on her own, had let go of the agent's hand and stepped a few meters away from him.

"Yeah?" By now he felt as tired as she had looked in the beginning.

"Want 'is!" Mini-Ziva pointed to a window mannequin, which stood at the far end of the store.

Gibbs regarded the costume, "I'll call Abby," he muttered, his gut telling him that his favorite scientist had something to do with Ziva's choice.

'Gibbs!'

The team leader chuckled at the greeting, "Hey Abs."

'What's up, boss-man?'

"We're at the costume shop..."

'Soooo?' She drawled her reply, awaiting his next words in anticipation.

"You were right," Gibbs grumbled into the cellphone, holding it momentarily away as the woman on the other end shrieked loudly in joy.

'That's so...'

"If you want to help to make it perfect, I suggest that you get here as soon as possible." With this he hung up and turned back to Ziva, who looked questionably at him.

"Abby had a guess that you would pick out such a costume." He smiled at the little girl who gave him a toothy smile in return.

"While we wait for her, let's find that costume and you can try it on. Okay?"

"Ken!" Still smiling she took Gibbs' offered hand and they went to search for the costume.

(Abby's there)

"You don't have something to do with her choice, right?" Gibbs stared at his favorite goth.

"Well..." Abby suddenly looked sheepish, "I might have shown her a costume catalog, which happened to lie around..."

While she explained her voice had gotten quieter and quieter. Aware of her boss' unhappy expression.

As the team leader kept quiet after her declaration, she dared to look at him again, "Say something, Gibbs?"

The agent sighed and just shook his head, "Could have told me this and spared us all a lot of time..."

"I thought that she would find a different costume. The ones in my catalog were sorta dark..."

Gibbs just kept looking at her. "What's done..." He let the rest of the sentence hang in the air. His eyes going back to the little girl, who happily spun round in front of a full-length mirror.

~ Fin ~

Lo = No